The time was December 1864. Winter had not yet released her grip on the struggling
Confederacy, nor had the Union armies. The seaports of Charleston and Wilmington were
still receiving supplies from Europe. In the past six months the towns received over
500,000 pairs of shoes, 300,000 blankets, 3.5 million pounds of meat, 1.5 million pounds
of lead, 2 million pounds of saltpeter, 50,000 rifles, 43 cannon plus huge amounts of
uniform cloth, medicine, and other essential supplies. From these imported goods came
supplies that were forwarded to Confederate field armies. In the heartland of the South,
the remaining 25,000 soldiers of the shattered Army of Tennessee were each sent a blanket,
jacket, two shirts, and four pairs of pants, shoes and drawers. The Army of Northern
Virginia, huddled in the trenches around Richmond and Petersbury, received 100,000
jackets, 140,000 pairs of pants, 167,000 pairs of shoes, 170,000 pairs of drawers, and
150,000 shirts, all for an army of 72,000 men. These supplies, plus an unbroken flow of
munitions, provided the Southern troops with the equipment needed to resist the Federals.

The Confederacy was able to supply their troops because of a reliance on a system
based on steam vessels carrying essential goods through the Federal Navy's blockade. It
was these vessels that allowed the new nation to survive as long as it did. On blockade
runners came 60 percent of the South's arms; one-third of its lead for bullets,
ingredients for three-fourths of its powder, nearly all of its paper for cartridges, and
the majority of its cloth and leather for uniforms and accoutrements.